4 tips to connect effectively on LinkedIn

It’s always great to learn from other industry professionals on how they are interacting on social media. As you’ve heard me talk about before, the architecture and design community is well-involved in social networking – and it’s awesome to hear their best practices.

Write a personal note when requesting to connect. Social media should be an extension of your off-line relationships. Thus, when asking someone to connect on LinkedIn, make a personal connection with them. Whether you met them at an industry trade show, or appreciated a comment they made in a Groups discussion, send you request with a personal note.

Be active in the groups you’re a member of. Don’t be a member of a group if you’re not sharing content or being an active part of discussions. This means honing down the groups you are affiliated with to 3 to 4 key groups so that you can participate, and participate well, in group conversations.

Connect your social media outlets. Let your social media content do double duty by connecting your social media platforms. Link your Twitter feed to LinkedIn so that when you tweet, it automatically updates your LinkedIn profile. This will help you have great traction across the Internet without doubling your time and effort.

Know the people you’re connecting with. LinkedIn presents a great opportunity to connect you with people that you might not have otherwise known. However, be cautious with how you go about requesting to connect with someone. If you haven’t personally met someone that you’d like to connect with, take part in a Group discussion with them so that they know who you are. Or, if you have connections in common, ask someone to introduce or recommend you as a connection.

As with any social media outlet, have a strategy in place so that your efforts are effective. Do you have any LinkedIn practices you would like to share?

(1) awesome folk have had something to say...

Hi, Mollie! This is Aiden at KI. Thanks so much for taking the time to attend our webinar yesterday. We thoroughly enjoyed Kia as a guest panelist and hope you found the discussion as valuable as we did! Thanks again for sharing your perspective!